[A2k] IP-Watch: Development Agenda Implementation Discussed Before WIPO Assemblies

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=3D744&res=3D1024_ff&print=3D0

18 September 2007

Development Agenda Implementation Discussed Before WIPO Assemblies


By Paul Garwood

More technical assistance to developing countries, closer collaboration
between UN agencies and overhauling the World Intellectual Property
Organization were among calls made during a conference of leading
players in the intellectual property community held Monday.

The conference, entitled =93The Reform of WIPO: Implementing the
Development Agenda,=94 was the second such event. The previous took place
on the eve of the 2004 WIPO General Assemblies at which the Development
Agenda proposal was first raised by Argentina and Brazil. At that time,
a group of leading academics and public interest groups published the
Geneva Declaration on the Future of WIPO which raised concern that
public interest be considered alongside rising IP protection and
gathered hundreds of signatures, including from Nobel Prize laureates
and other dignitaries.

Again, the latest conference, organised by the Trans Atlantic Consumer
Dialogue, was held days before the WIPO General Assemblies address
proposals by member states for a Development Agenda, in a bid to
influence the debate by countries participating in the UN meeting.

The assembly, which will focus on far-reaching measures to overhaul
WIPO, comes at a time when the UN body is fending off criticisms over
management and calls to better serve developing countries so they can
benefit from intellectual property provisions and flexibilities,
particularly in access to medicines and knowledge.

=93We are going through times of change in WIPO and we should keep
pushing the interests of all stakeholders (so) the debate can be
transformed into something concrete,=94 Guilherme Patriota, a counsellor
from Brazil=92s mission to the UN, told the conference. =93There has been
an unbalance that needs to be addressed.=94

The Provisional Committee on Proposals for a WIPO Development Agenda
(PCDA) this year recommended 45 proposals for the General Assemblies to
endorse. The recommendations, which follow repeated calls by
nongovernmental organisations and others for WIPO to broaden its
mandate, take into account public concerns with ownership of
technologies and knowledge and the impact of these areas on poor and
wealthy countries.

Among the PCDA proposals are about a dozen it believes WIPO can
implement immediately, including providing development-oriented,
demand-driven technical assistance, particularly in least developed
countries, and increasing financial assistance to make it happen.

=93There will be specific aspects that require immediate implementation,=94
Argentine Ambassador to the UN, Alberto Dumont, told Intellectual
Property Watch on the sidelines of the conference. =93I see this most in
the areas of technical assistance and to have a system where there is
better exchange of information between the various UN programmes. There
also must be more transparency within WIPO.=94

Carolyn Deere, director of the Global Trade Governance Project at the
University of Oxford (and Intellectual Property Watch founder),
proposed wide-ranging structural reforms within WIPO to give more
powers to member states. Deere also suggested removing the WIPO
secretariat=92s control over the organisation=92s coffers and placing it
under a newly created executive board comprising countries.

=93For an organisation as large as WIPO, it is very difficult for any
member state to exercise oversight of the organisation,=94 Deere said.

On fees that WIPO charges for patents, Brazil=92s Patriota told
Intellectual Property Watch that the General Assemblies should reject
efforts by the United States and Japan to reduce charges that companies
pay WIPO for patent applications, saying it could turn the UN body=92s
budget surplus into a deficit and, in turn, impact on services the
organisation can provide to developing countries.

Boosting capacity within WIPO to design programmes that meet country
specific needs is vital, speakers said during the conference, as is
increasing technical assistance inside countries to help them benefit
from intellectual property, including for health.

=93We must establish the needs of a particular country,=94 said Ron
Marchant, ex-chief executive of the United Kingdom Patent Office. =93We
can=92t make clones of intellectual property (for every country to use).
WIPO needs to then create programmes and projects, and the lack of
skills of WIPO call[s] for this kind of work (to be done) through a
mixture of external and internal (professionals).=94

Sangeeta Shashikant, researcher for the Third World Network
nongovernmental organisation, said WIPO should consider providing
technical assistance as its priority. Countries needed legislative
assistance to help draft laws that can be applied to local conditions.

=93Countries are at different levels of development so (the same rules
concerning) intellectual property cannot be applied to all,=94 Shashikant
told the conference.

On access to medicines, Pascale Boulet of M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res said
WIPO should offer more technical support to help countries use the
World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). TRIPS allows countries,
particularly in the developing world, to make drugs to safeguard public
health in national emergencies or for non-commercial purposes.

=93WIPO should provide advice that has a pro-health perspective rather
than an IP protection focus,=94 Boulet told the conference.

Michelle Childs, London representative and head of European affairs for
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), urged WIPO to adopt concrete
measures to help guide the organisation=92s work.

Childs supported a recent proposal made by Chile to WIPO=92s Standing
Committee on Copyright and Related Rights that called for exceptions
and limitations in copyright to be made in the fields of education,
libraries and for people with disabilities. KEI calls for a global
minimum set of limitations and exceptions for these three areas.

=93Users and consumers are not a homogenous group,=94 Childs said. =93There
are obviously differences in consumers between developed and developing
countries, but there are also differences amongst consumers, and
consumers with a disability are an example.=94

Paul Garwood may be reached at pgarwood@ip-watch.ch.

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---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org